Friday, September 14, 2012

Milan vs. Atalanta Preview: Bring on the… Goddess?

Yes,
that’s right, on Saturday, we’re playing a bunch of girls. But not just any
girls. Atalanta is named after the Greek goddess of the same name, so naturally,
they are called “La Dea,” or “the
Goddess.” But Atalanta wasn’t any ordinary woman. Myths say that she was
abandoned as a baby by her father, who wanted a son, and thus she suckled and was raised by a she-bear. So she learned to run and hunt like a bear. She was later
known for being very strong and athletic and competing with (and beating) many
men (some of whom lost their life because of it.) Which goes to show you that
you can never judge a team named after a woman. You never know what they are
capable of.

German Denis releases his inner Goddess

Atalanta
may have been back in Serie A for only a year now, but you can never count them
out. In fact, they were impacted by the Calcioscommesse scandal to the tune of
a two point deduction. So with their loss vs. Lazio and their draw vs.
Cagliari, they are still -1 on the season. Which is even more motivation for
them to produce a result against Milan. Well, that and the fact that they lost
both legs of the matchup last year to a 2-0 deficit, I’m pretty sure they’ll
want to take advantage of any chance we give them.

The
Nerazzurri stripes will be familiar to Pazzini and Montolivo, as they both grew
up and played together in the Atalanta youth system. You may also remember one
Pippo Inzaghi was playing for Atalanta when he was “discovered,” as well as
former Milan player Maurizio Ganz (yes, that’s Simone Andrea Ganz’s father.) So
they may be an enemy, but they are a familiar one.

The hot young left back could make problems for Milan

Colantuano
will undoubtedly want to include Federico Peluso in the lineup. The left back
was actually linked with Milan this summer, and he just scored his first
international goal this week on duty with the Azzurri. Additionally, I suppose
he’ll go with his 4-4-2 of Consigli; Lucchini, Manfredini, Bellini, Peluso;
Schelotto, Bonaventura, Cigarini, Biondini; Moralez, and Denis.

Allegri
on the other hand is already in injury trouble, and now seemingly has to fight
to keep his job. Berlusconi is reportedly giving him an ultimatum of winning
the next 7 games or he will be fired. So no players and no pressure whatsoever.
Will he change formations? Hard to say, rumors are flying everywhere.

Allegri under pressure to get results now

So
I’ll just venture to guess he’ll stick with the 4-3-1-2 and say maybe Abbiati;
Abate, Bonera, Acerbi, Antonini; De Jong, Ambrosini, Nocerino; Boateng, El
Shaarawy and Bojan “Boy-band” Krkic. Even if Pazzini is fit in time after a
minor injury in training this week, I would save him for the CL on Tuesday. But
who am I kidding? Allegri would never do that.

It
will be an interesting match. Milan on the new pitch are less than impressive.
Atalanta have a lot to prove, including trying to prove that they don’t play
like a girl. But Milan need every point they can get, so lets hope they prove
to be better than a girl. With a little luck and a lot of blood, sweat, and
tears, Milan can leave Atalanta in the negative point range tomorrow. Just
don’t anger the goddess.